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5 ways to save money with your iPhone or Android smartphone

August 11, 2023 by Rico Mossegeld

Even before Apple and Google dominated the mobile software industry, money-saving apps were must-haves for power users of previous generation mobile environments like the Palm OS.

Much of these legacy software, lacking the internet access and tight hardware integration that define the smartphone experience today, were limited to helping users balance their budgets.

That’s definitely changed, especially as the average smartphone buyer places more weight on what apps are available for a phone, with less focus on the gadget’s built-in hardware features. [Read more…] about 5 ways to save money with your iPhone or Android smartphone

5 kinds of programs you should install on a new Windows PC

August 9, 2023 by Rico Mossegeld

So you’ve unpacked your new desktop or laptop, or just finished a reformat. What programs should you install on your brand new Windows installation? Here are 10 suggested application categories, listed in the order they should be installed.

Keep in mind that the following suggestions are meant for a new Windows installation. As a long-time user of Microsoft’s operating system, I’m aware that even Windows 7 has many disadvantages compared to Linux and Mac OS X. Yet in terms of versatility and availability of programs, Microsoft’s OS remains supreme. [Read more…] about 5 kinds of programs you should install on a new Windows PC

Les Paul Google Doodle – Cool BUT Costly!

August 1, 2023 by noemi

So last week, how much time did you spend playing with the Les Paul Google Doodle? Arguably, that Doodle is the second best that Google has come up with. I personally prefer the Pac-Man Doodle although it seemed to me that more people voiced out their appreciation of the more recent Doodle.

And it also seems that more people spent time actually staying on Google’s home page – not to do anything else but play with the virtual guitar and record their handiwork! According to ExtremeTech ((ExtremeTech)), the “simple” Doodle cost the world a whopping 10.7 million man hours. Imagine countless people stopping work to play their favorite tune using the Doodle. Imagine the same people conducting searches to find out which strings to “pluck” in order to get their desired tone. It’s easy to understand just how many hours were spent playing on the guitar all over the world.

Now let’s talk money. Those 10.7 million man hours – how much does that cost? Working on the assumption that the average Google user earns $25 per hour, those hours translate to $268 million. Oh please don’t let the executives read these figures or they just might ban Google. Then again, who is to say that those executives didn’t spend their fair share of time on the Les Paul?

And speaking of money, the Doodle didn’t come free for Google. The guys at ExtremeTech seem to love doing math, so they went ahead and calculated the cost of the Les Paul Doodle – a mere $15,000. Well, it’s not a small sum but comparing it to the cost in productivity, it’s a drop in the bucket.

Google, you may be a productivity killer at times, but you still rock!

Gmail Motion – The Real-Life Version

July 19, 2023 by noemi

Remember Google’s April Fools’ prank? Gmail Motion was – is – so ridiculous that we all knew that it was nothing but a prank. In case you missed it ((Have you been living in a cave???)), Gmail Motion is e-mail which can be controlled using your body. With this innovative Google development, all you need is your body and you can do whatever you need with your mail. As one person put it, be careful when you sneeze, though, as you may end up deleting all of your e-mails! Here’s the video of the Gmail Motion in action.

Anyhow, prank or not, the idea is actually realizable. Consciously or not, the guys behind the prank may have started something. You know how it is with creative minds, don’t you? When a bunch of guys from the Institute for Creative Technologies ((ICT at the University of Southern California)) saw the video above, their minds started working overtime.

I can just imagine them as they were watching the video. Hey, this is actually technically possible! Why don’t we give it a shot and give Google a dose of their own medicine while we’re at it?

Armed with a sensor taken from Microsoft’s Kinect (talk about the irony of it), they started a projected called the Software Library Optimizing Obligatory Waving, or SLOOW. You don’t have to be slow to use the set up, but you do have to move your butt (and other body parts). Check out the video the guys created to demo their project.

Now this isn’t exactly your run-of-the-mill scientific proposal, but it seems to work, doesn’t it? While it is real, I doubt that we’ll be seeing this kind of setup available to the general public any time soon.

Google: The Body Is a Wonderland

July 2, 2023 by noemi

John Mayer may have become popular thanks to his bubblegum tongue-filled lyrics (I still don’t get what that’s supposed to mean, by the way), but Google is stepping things up a notch in this wonderland-body thingamajig. Google’s Body Browser was launched last week and is slated to be another of those Google creations that will keep you playing around for hours – well, maybe minutes, depending on the intensity of your interest in the human anatomy.

First thing you ought to know – you need a web browser with WebGL support. Google will try to make it easy for you and give you a link to download the new Google Chrome Beta (you have to admire the plugging). I didn’t have any problems making the application work on the first try, but it seems that in the early hours of its release, some people were not able to make it work.

Once you have the new Chrome Beta, just visit the Body Browser page, and you will see something like this.

The default 3D image is a fully clad female, which you can manipulate to learn more about the human body. You can peel layer after layer off – not clothing but skin, muscles, and so on. You can also rotate the body and make it smaller or larger, depending on your preferences.

I think it’s a pretty cool education tool, but squeamish person that I am, I didn’t last 10 minutes playing around with the 3D model. I am pretty sure lots of other people will find more use for the product, though.